Normal Maps

[jheaddon]

I apologise if this has already been posted, had a look around but could not find anything along the lines.

I was wondering if anyone knew if it was possible:

- To use more than 1 normal map per model, e.g. one for head and another for body

- To use larger than 1024x1024 maps (think 2048x2048 is largest texture size, but not sure about HL2 maps)

Cheers

 

[thereisaspoon]

yea u can for both things, 2048 is the largest size. Thats horribly large though, i dont see what you can possibly apply to that. for world geometry a 1024 texture is good enough for almost anything.

 

[SparedLife]

There are a few combinations I have tried using various maps. You can use a custom map name. You can use the default from the diffuse skin map or you can use the normal map. This is per skin map basis including the eyes which has 2 maps.

Using the normal map for bump and gloss lets you use the diffuse alpha for glow mapping. You could also use an external custom named file.

 

[thereisaspoon]

glow mapping? u mean self-illumination? there isn't any blooming in hl2
keep all textures below or at 512 px unless a huge object is being textured.

 

[The Dark Elf]

I apologise if this has already been posted, had a look around but could not find anything along the lines.

I was wondering if anyone knew if it was possible:

- To use more than 1 normal map per model, e.g. one for head and another for body

- To use larger than 1024x1024 maps (think 2048x2048 is largest texture size, but not sure about HL2 maps)

Cheers

I know your hoping for Unreal 3 quality, but it ain't gonna happen on 99% of the users hardware for another year or so.

Granted your thinking ahead, but still. Unreal 3 is like the original Unreal, few enemies visible at a given time. Fine for that, but not for your HL:S mod. You have to get a happy medium, the high end of the scale will simply be too much for most PC's to cope with on anything Unreal3 quality in HL1 based maps after all the added extra's.

Normal maps are stored within the same material as the other images for that texture.

I'd not go higher than 1024x1024 and even then I'd be careful.

 

[(Fragger)]

2 normal maps (head and body) 1024 x 1024. Radeon 9600xt 128 mb , p4 3.2 1 gb 3200 ddr.

 

[thereisaspoon]

hl2 is not very good at rendering normal maps anyways, look fake as hell

 

[SparedLife]

The jacket collar looks great, you must have one deep bump map for that. When I first got the game and looked at that collar I wondered why they didn't use any bump mapping on her but did on others.

Normal maps are stored within the same material as the other images for that texture.

That is true but there is a definition for the bump map that uses normal in its alpha channel
As in Alyx_skin would be Alyx_skin_normal.

glow mapping? u mean self-illumination?

Yes. the self-illumination map mask not the type or amount.

 

[(Fragger)]

"Self illumination" can be seen in the I-rifle ammo. It has red rings that are visible even in total darkness. Same thing with the lights on the combine helmets and eyes. That's achieved by masking the texture using an alpha channel.

 

[jheaddon]

TDE - You know you can have upto 8 Levels of Detail on a character model? Would it be possible to use different normal maps for each level?

Say when 200m away from a grunt, have a 128 normal map on them, and then upto a 1024 or 512 when right up close?

 

[thereisaspoon]

textures automaticaly lod on everything, called mipmaps.

 

[jheaddon]

Fragger, you know how to setup the models to use two normal maps?

For head and body?

 

[thereisaspoon]

u assing 2 differnet materials for it, u need to do it in 3dsmax, maya or xsi. u asign a material named body to 1 part of the model and 1 called head, then u make 2 textures for both and write 2 vmt files.

 

[(Fragger)]

As long as they use head and body textures, you just create a normal map for each and edit the vmts. All humans can have 2 normal maps.